Kevin Durant Is Ready For His New Life In The Bay Area
Kevin Durant is set to debut for a Golden State Warriors team bristling with talent and all eyes will be on him.
The new season for Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors begins tonight. 128 days after that fateful Game Seven loss to Cleveland, the wait is over and the curtain goes up on a new era of Warriors basketball.
After two appearances in the Finals, one NBA championship, and amassing 73 wins during a single regular season — a league record — the Golden State Warriors surprised many by making some serious changes over this past summer.
The departure of many important elements like Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Marreese Speights allowed the arrival of superstar Kevin Durant. The spotlight will be focused on Durant and all eyes will be monitoring every single expression on his face closely.
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Some months ago, the idea that he could come to the Bay Area seemed unthinkable. And for many, as we get set for a new season, it still seems unbelievable. But this is something real and something concrete.
Against the San Antonio Spurs on opening night, we will see Durant’s official regular season debut for Golden State and, according to Steve Kerr, the guy is ready.
"He loves the movement, he loves to make plays, he’s enjoying playing with the shooting backcourt because they can space and he can make plays and vice-versa. So I think he’s really adapting well and fitting in well."
The main curiosity that remains among many is the team’s chemistry and how Durant fits with Golden State’s other two superstars, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry.
"We’re still trying to find the right combination with Durant without Curry. Things seem to change dramatically when Steph goes off the floor, even this year. We can put plenty of talent on the floor, but the game changes and we have to get better with our execution when he is off. That means finding the right group around Kevin."
It is possible that we’ve already seen the chemistry between the new trio in action and have gotten a feel for how they work together . Over the preseason, the scoring averages for the Warriors’ top three is Kevin Durant 29.8, Stephen Curry 29.4 and Klay Thompson 26.7.
Durant has shown good consistency thus far, and was behind only DeMar DeRozan as the leading scorer of this preseason.
When you add Draymond Green to the mix, the four superstars played 83 minutes together during this preseason and their offensive rate appeared immediately effective.
The Warriors have an average of 119.9 points per 100 possessions. The NBA record for that category (according to an estimate by basketball-reference.com) is 115.6 by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1986-87.
With those four on the court, the Warriors have an outstanding field goal percentage of 63.2. Last season, during the greatest regular season ever, the Warriors’ field goal percentage averaged just 56.3.
Sure, it’s just the preseason, but it was a nice preseason.
In addition to getting acquainted with his team, Durant is also trying to get his familiar with his new home in the Bay Area. He recently took in the Kanye West concert at Oracle Arena and was later photographed while he was picking up the BART and visiting AMOEBA Music in Berkeley.
Steve Kerr knows how important it is to be involved in the community where you live, and in fact, that was one of his concerns during Durant’s early days with Golden State.
"We have talked a lot about. I ask him all the time, what did you do yesterday? This is a beautiful part of the world and a great, interesting place to live and he’s having fun and he’s getting used to everything and enjoying himself."
After the decision to come to the Bay Area, Durant left a message on Reddit asking for help in getting to know the city better.
"Hey wassup Warriors fans its KD. New to the area, still tryin to get my feet wet and want to know what places in The Bay I should check out. Im new to Reddit, lurked here and there, so yall think you can help me out for a bit?"
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Many Redditors indicated that he might enjoy Ike’s Place — a popular Bay Area sandwich chain. The company is also famous for some of their sandwiches bearing the names of the Bay Area’s sporting legends — including the Steph #CurryOne, which if you’re interested is Ike’s yellow BBQ, turkey and provolone cheese. Delicious.
Who knows, at the end of the season, a new “KD XXL” may just be added to the menu.
On opening night, Golden State will square off with the San Antonio Spurs, who will be entering their first year in almost two decades without Tim Duncan who retired following last season. Nevertheless, the Spurs remain one of the better teams in the Western Conference and the addition of Pau Gasol allows a highly organized and disciplined team to improve and stay competitive.
Last year, the Spurs finished the regular season with just six fewer wins than Golden State, who had the most prolific regular season in league history. Will San Antonio be able to keep pace with Golden State this year? We’ll find out soon enough.
As the season gets underway, the lion’s share of attention will be on Durant. And for his part, the man known as KD, must be smart and avoid falling down, continuing to play his game.
Next: Durant Must Be Himself For Team To Succeed
Obviously, getting off to the sort of start they did last year would be great and would give a boost of of enthusiasm and confidence to the whole organization. However, the regular-season record should not become an obsession. As we saw last year, it doesn’t matter for much if you don’t win it all.
This team is not obliged to win all the regular season games they play. The greatest lesson of the last season is that the records are nowhere near as valuable as a ring.